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2003 November Report of the Auditor General of Canada

November 2003 Report—Chapter 1

Case Study 1.1—Simplifying income tax for seniors

Canada Customs and Revenue Agency identified a number of seniors whose only source of income in the current year was Old Age Security, the Guaranteed Income Supplement, and Canada Pension Plan. Using information from Human Resources Development Canada on benefits paid to all recipients during the previous year, the Agency notified about 125,000 low-income seniors that they could complete their tax returns by telephone. By answering a few "yes" and "no" questions, they could also automatically renew their Guaranteed Income Supplement and qualify to receive the GST rebate in the following year.

This illustrates the benefits of a client-centred service transformation that the Government On-Line guiding principles promote. The Agency has turned the traditional self-assessment taxation model around in order to reach out to a particular group of senior citizens. This new approach transforms a complicated annual process into an easy confirmation process.